Farewell to The Thicket

By Karl Kurtz

Another wetland has fallen prey to development.

The victim this time is The Thicket at State Legislatures, and the development is NCSL's spiffy redesigned website, which prominently features The NCSL Blog. The NCSL Blog will absorb and continue to cover the primary beat of The Thicket--the practice of representative democracy, state politics and elections, and federalism--but it will expand its coverage to include state policy issues and NCSL news and priorities.

So, welcome to The NCSL Blog and farewell to The Thicket. The Thicket will continue to exist as an archive of useful information (historically, more than half of the hits to The Thicket have come from search engines, indicating that readers were seeking information provided by the blog), but there will be no new posts. The NCSL Blog provides a link to the old posts in The Thicket.

The Thicket, which took it's name from Justice Felix Frankfurter's famous phrase about how redistricting is a political thicket, was a labor of love for seven years. We launched The Thicket in May 2006 and posted 1,657 stories since that time.

Our readers have included 378,577 unique visitors from 192 countries who have viewed 691,653 pages. Those are small numbers compared to the big guys (The Huffington Post gets as many visitors in a day as The Thicket did in seven years). But we have been happy in our quiet niche--"by and for legislative junkies"--and have been proud of our work.

Far and away the most popular story ever posted in The Thicket was "Movies About Ethical Dilemmas". It has received twice as many pageviews as the next most popular posting. Here are the top 10 stories of all time:

1. Movies About Ethical Dilemmas by Peggy Kerns (September 2009)
2. Fire Alarms and Police Patrols: Two Approaches to Legislative Oversight by Karl Kurtz (October 2009)
3. The Closest U.S. Presidential Race in History was ... by Mark Wolf (November 2012)
4. Republic or Representative Democracy by Karl Kurtz (September 2011)
5. Who will Meet in 2011? by Meagan Dorsch (December 2012)
6. Full-time or Part-time Legislature: Which is Better? by Karl Kurtz (February 2013)
7. Keeping up With Online Legislative Tracking Services by Jo Anne Bourquard (January 2011)
8. How to Run for the Legislature by Karl Kurtz (October 2006)
9. Historical Party Affiliations of State Legislatures by Karl Kurtz (September 2007)
10. Legislative Walkouts are Nothing New by Karl Kurtz (February 2011)

See you over at The NCSL blog.

Comments

[Debbie Haskins]

I will miss the Thicket! Thank you for your work over the years. I'm sure the blog will be great, too.

[Kathy McGuire]

Thank you for the Thicket, Karl!

[Alfred Speer, Clerk]

So few years yet such an expanse of time. The Thicket was so avant garde in 2006 I was stunned at the possibility of a repetitive source for arcane and interesting legislative information. Having tried and failed to create a state centered replicant I know the hard work, dedication, and perseverance required to make the Thicket a success. It is a success for its now it has been the subject of corporate take-over; the US's one true measure of value.
Thank you for peeking my interest over and over. I can only hope that the corporate version will come close.

[Kathy Tingelstad]

Great info thru the years! Thanks for your hard work. --Kathy Tingelstad, Minnesota

[Gail Stone]

Thank you for six years of blogging that has often provoked thought and has sparked my curiosity about all sorts of intrigues and alternatives. Your labors have been much appreciated out here in the Other Washington, Karl. Cheers!

[Tom Bottern]

Thank you, Karl, for the years of entertaining and enlightening posts that have made working in the legislative setting even more enjoyable. I am looking forward to the blog, and hoping you can put your stamp on that too. Thanks again!

[Ken Levine]

So long, it's been good to know you. Thanks for the many words over the years. Will look forward to the new expanded blog, but heck, how catchy is the name "The NCSL Blog"?

[John Hale]

Let me add my thanks as well, Karl, for all of the fascinating information that the Thicket has provided.

[Anne Dunn]

You have given the Thicket a special spirit that I for one have really appreciated. Many thanks for this

[Karl Kurtz]

Thanks to all for the kind comments about The Thicket. I am amused by Alfred "Butch" Speer's comment about a corporate takeover. To the extent that it's a good analogy, it's definitely a friendly takeover.

And yes, Ken is right, that "The NCSL Blog" is not the most inspired name, but it performs the trick.